Re: Do tenders sit level?

The rear of the tenders were shimmed to allow the tank to sit more level upgrade.
This can almost always be accomplished in model form by simply adding a single brass washer between the rear truck and bolster plate. The only time I have ever had to remove a bolster plate to get the correct look on a model was on a K-37, which in my opinion is the one which shows the most slope because of the shorter wheelbase.
A couple of years ago there was a long discussion about this, and Woody Woodward informed us that one of the 490 tenders, I recall the 492, actually sloped to the rear under a heavy load of water. This one is the only one that can actually be attributed to soft or broken springs on the D&RGW Narrow Gauge, as water weighs far more than coal. An empty tender sits exactly the same as a loaded tender. This was done intentionally.
All locomotive trim was always silver on the D&RGW in the later years, with the apparent exception of engines in Montrose. The D&S and C&TS have followed this practice with silver trim only.